The Cooler Master Centurion 5 (CAC-T05-WWA)

Fan and PSU Impression

Cooler Master’s choice of fans was interesting to say the least. The front (intake) uses an 80mm fan placed between the case front and the lower drive bays, while the rear (exhaust) uses a 120mm fan of similar quality.

Both fans were extremely quiet, but very poor performers when it came to air flow. This is the same gripe I’ve had about all three Cooler Master cases that I’ve owned (Wave Master, CM Stacker, and now Centurion 5). In this day and age of high performance high temperature systems, Cooler Master needs to find an adequate trade off between noise and performance. I would have liked to see Cooler Master use two 120mm fans, and possibly mount a third fan on the side panel.

The review sample we received included a standard ATX PS2 350W PSU. I found this both surprising and disappointing. The case market is flooded with budget cases in the $25-50 range that include 350W PSUs like this. This is an issue for two reasons. first, I hardly consider Cooler Master to be a budget case manufacturer, and second, the price of this case ranges from $85-100, which does not fall in the “budget” category. Since most new systems are extremely power hungry, I think Cooler Master made an extremely poor choice here and would have been better served either offering the case with no PSU and dropping the price $20-25, or including at least a 400W power supply.

The included PSU is adequate enough for low end or older systems, but with most manufacturers recommending at least 400W to power todays power hungry systems, this power supply is in my opinion woefully inadequate.